


Ashes

by turmeric



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Cinderella AU, Cliche af, Fluffy, M/M, Romance, kind of, my garbage version of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 03:37:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11546676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turmeric/pseuds/turmeric
Summary: Sunggyu's life kind of really sucks.





	Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> Note: The title has nothing to do with the story except being a synonym for cinder lmao. I hope you enjoy!

Nam Woohyun leaned his elbow on the edge of the marble white etched balcony of one of the expansive castle’s hallways and sighed softly. The view he had was of the grassy field below where the kingdom’s knights were practicing. It was a warm spring day and the sun glinted off their armor. But Woohyun was kind of sort of more interested with what was under their silver armor. As one of them pulled off his helmet, he unleashed shoulder length black locks, sweat slicked to his forehead, dripping down his neck, tanned biceps glistening with perspiration.

Woohyun proceeded to bury his flushed face in his hands.

Woohyun was a prince. And in the following few days was the spectacular Lavender Ball—aka the prince matchmaking event of the season. It was the king—Woohyun’s older brother, Boohyun’s idea to match Woohyun with a suitable match, a future princess.

Of course, Woohyun didn’t mind this at all. Woohyun liked girls, and he was planning to be as courteous and give each suitor the attention and kindness each of them deserved.

 It didn’t matter that sometimes Woohyun enjoyed watching the knights of the kingdom working out or generally being shirtless. _Everyone_ was attracted to the knights.

Because Woohyun knew whichever princess won over his heart, would be the one person he would be loyal to.

-

Kim Sunggyu wiped some grime from his face as he scooted out from underneath the horse carriage. He had finally finished fixing it since his cousins had broken it whilst going on a joy ride. It wasn’t like he was someone who knew anything about fixing carriages or any kind of mechanical work.

In fact, as a child he grew up in a big house with plenty of room to play and a mother and father who loved him very much. Unfortunately, his parents passed away in a car accident and Sunggyu was forced to move in with his stepfather when he was twelve. His stepfather was a petty jealous man who always despised his brother, Sunggyu’s father. And due to this, treated Sunggyu like garbage as some sort of sick revenge on the deceased person he could never live up to.

Sunggyu wiped the grease from his hands and picked up a wrench off the floor and put it back in the toolbox beside it. The hot sun beat down on the back of head, as Sunggyu wiped beads of sweat from the back of his neck with a groan.

He put the toolbox back in the storage shed and made his way back into his uncle’s gaudy two story house. His uncle had two sons who were in their mid-twenties just like Sunggyu.

However that’s where the similarities ended as far as Sunggyu was concerned.

His two cousins were messy, loud and just straight up assholes. The older of the two Jaeho was stocky in build and was constantly bragging about how great his body was (as if Sunggyu cared).  Kyungho was the younger of the two, a slim ‘pretty boy’ type and was always bringing a new maiden home to his bedroom and always forcing Sunggyu to give him money so he could buy something new for whatever girl he was seeing at the time.

Sunggyu ignored Jaeho and Kyungho arguing about something in the kitchen and moved across the hallway towards a dark corner of the house. There was a staircase there that led to his bedroom—though bedroom wasn’t exactly an accurate term. Especially since it was merely the basement.

Sunggyu turned on the one lamp that lit up the dusty wooden, windowless room. He plopped down on his creaky small bed and groaned. He listened to the distant sounds of his cousins yelling for a moment and rolled his eyes. He pulled a slightly tattered notebook from under his flat pillow and opened a clean page. This notebook was his special notebook where he wrote all the names of the people he would throw dirt in the faces of, when he became rich and successful.

So far his uncle and two cousins were the only people in there, but Sunggyu was sure there would be more people. Most people sucked, in Sunggyu’s opinion. They either acted like assholes or leave. He thought of his mother and father—how they had just left him alone. He pressed his finger to the paper and sighed. It wasn’t like it was his parent’s fault but Sunggyu couldn’t help but feel just a little bit of resentment. Because now he was alone, struggling to save up enough money to move far away. The struggle was made greater even by the fact that he wasn’t allowed to leave the house during the days because of the inhumanly long list of chores his uncle setup for him. And it wasn’t like there were many jobs available at night, so he mostly could only get some sort of tavern job where he bartended.

He hated his uncle and his cousins, but the image of him leaving all this behind and being able to be the successful person he always knew he was capable of becoming still remained in his mind.

He crawled off his bed and pulled up the loose floorboard underneath to check on his envelopes and jars where he kept all his savings.

One day, he told himself, one day he’d be able to look his uncle in the face and say “Screw you.”

-

Later that evening, Sunggyu was attempting to make dinner. Sure, he had been with his uncle and cousins for years but he still never really had gotten the hang of cooking. But of course his cousins and uncle still demanded he make the meals because god forbid they move their lazy asses. He picked up the salt and some sort of sauce and tentatively smelled it before tossing both in, hoping for the best.

His uncle and cousins were talking about some invitation they had gotten in the mail earlier. Something about a Lavender Ball having to do with wearing masks and the prince. Apparently everyone in town was invited, though Sunggyu assumed he probably wouldn’t be allowed to go anyways. It wasn’t like he cared much to go anyways, since it was the sort of party where you had to dress up all fancy (and wear masks which Sunggyu just found weird as hell.) Sunggyu didn’t much care for the prince either. He didn’t really know anything about the prince per se, but Jaeho and Kyungho seemed to admire him for some reason, and that was already a red flag as far as Sunggyu was concerned. But on the other hand, he thought it would be quite entertaining to watch his cousins make fools of themselves in front of the prince.

Unfortunately he was not given that luxury and instead was given the task of tailoring suits for his cousins for the party.

And his uncle made himself perfectly clear that Sunggyu wasn’t allowed to attend.

Sunggyu nodded, as if accepting his fate, but in his mind, he had other ideas.

-

On the day of the Lavender Ball, Sunggyu waited for the evening and watched as his cousins and uncle left in the horse carriage that _he_ had fixed. He snorted, and quickly rushed back down to his basement bedroom. He fished out the meticulously plastic wrapped suit he had been hiding in an old dusty chest in the corner of his basement room. It was his father’s suit and luckily suited him for the most part. The pants were rather fitted, but Sunggyu assumed it would be fine and checked his appearance in the mirror. He had to admit he looked quite good after snagging kyungho’s styling products for his hair. He had managed to salvage enough fabric from tailoring his cousins’ suits to craft a black mask that covered his eyes.

Sunggyu made his way outside and pulled a bike out from behind the storage shed. He had been hiding it there and using it to get to nighttime jobs when he had them.

Was he maybe going too far just to see his cousins make fools of themselves he wondered. He thought about how much his cousins drooled over the prince like he was their idol and chuckled to himself. He imagined making friends with the prince just to make his cousins pissed off.  He enjoyed these thoughts, as he rode his bike along the gravelly pathway to the castle.

-

Woohyun adjusted his white tuxedo jacket and the silvery grey vest underneath nervously as he made his way to the ballroom. He could already hear chatter from the other side of the grand gold encrusted double doors leading to the ball. He bit his lip nervously and turned to his brother who was smiling beside him mouthing the words, “You’ll do great Woohyunie.”

Woohyun smiled and nodded and the doors were pushed open. Woohyun was almost blinded for a moment by the bright lights of the chandelier. Everyone was looking at him, all dressed in sparkles and silk, holding glasses of champagne. And there was so many girls—so _so_ many.

Woohyun gulped and tried his best to give a smile.

-

Sunggyu was officially bored. An hour of the Lavender Ball had passed and his cousins hadn’t embarrassed themselves yet. And every girl there was basically throwing themselves at the prince. And the prince, that was something else entirely. He was so typically attractive and kind and he had a nice smile, it pissed Sunggyu off. He didn’t have to smile so patiently with every single person he met for God’s sake. Sunggyu had had enough of this and decided to take this chance to explore the castle while everyone was busy with the party. He accidentally wandered outside and found himself in the palace gardens. There was a topiary maze and a fairy light lit gazebo beside it. Sunggyu made his way to the gazebo and comfortably took a seat on the cushion’s bench inside with a sigh, breathing in the fresh balmy air. He looked out at the flowers along the gazebo and how they made a pathway to the topiary maze.

“Ah.”

Sunggyu looked up to see, well the prince— _the_ Prince Nam Woohyun.

“I’m sorry.” Woohyun quickly said and rubbed the back of his head. “Uh…I didn’t know someone was already here.”

He quickly turned around to leave and Sunggyu wanted to let him leave, but why the hell was the prince saying sorry to him, when Sunggyu was the one intruding in the first place.

He hated his conscious sometimes. “Wait.”

Woohyun stopped, his boot clacking on the third and last step of the gazebo. “Hm?”

“You…you can sit, I’ll leave.” Sunggyu mumbled and got up. He probably should’ve been more respectful or something, but he didn’t really care to be. That, and he had drunk a few too many glasses of champagne and his ability to be courteous and polite had somewhat dissipated.

Unexpectedly, the prince’s eyes lit up. “O-Or,” Woohyun quickly bounded towards Sunggyu. “We can sit…together?”

Sunggyu gave him a questioning look, but shrugged. “Uh, if you want.”

Woohyun sat next to Sunggyu, a decision Sunggyu didn’t understand since there was plenty of room, away from him.

“So,” Woohyun twiddled his fingers on his lap. “What’s your name?”

Sunggyu made a snort like sound and leaned back, on the wooden framing. “What would be the point of these masks then, hm?”

Woohyun laughed softly. “Yeah, but it’s like…” He swayed back and forth shyly. “You already know who I am but I don’t…I don’t know anyone else.”

Sunggyu turned to him and gave him a rather concentrated stare that made Woohyun somewhat nervous.

“Is there…something on my face—?”

Sunggyu suddenly reached out and pulled off Woohyun’s prince crown. Woohyun was startled for a moment until Sunggyu put the crown down beside him and turned to Woohyun again with a grin.

“Know you? Sorry but I’m not sure I know you, friend who’s definitely not the prince.” He patted Woohyun head to emphasize the lack of a crown. Woohyun giggled— _giggled,_ and looked down, twisting his fingers awkwardly like he wasn’t sure who to be anymore.

He was so different to what Sunggyu imagined him to be.

This fluffy haired, shy, awkward man that giggled was definitely not what he expected. He was also smaller than Sunggyu thought he would be. He found himself smiling at that fact.

“Ah,” Woohyun suddenly spoke up and pointed at a flower blooming along the vine that intertwined with the railing of the gazebo. “It’s a butterfly!”

Sunggyu followed Woohyun’s gaze to the small orange and black butterfly sitting atop a pink flower and smiled. Though he found himself smiling more at Woohyun than the butterfly. Woohyun’s eyes glittered so much just because of a butterfly and Sunggyu thought it was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.

“Hey,” He noticed a bug crawling on Woohyun’s shoulder and grinned. “There’s a bug on your arm.”

“What?” Woohyun suddenly turned to him with a panicked look and got up in a flustered flurry, waving his arms around like a mad man. Sunggyu wanted to laugh but then Woohyun tripped over his own feet and fell onto his butt, still in a panicked state. He whimpered, his eyes squeezed shut as he panted. “I-Is it gone?”

Sunggyu chuckled softly. Since when was the Prince so fricking cute and how come no one had told him that, he wondered. “It’s gone.” He leaned over, reaching out his hand to help Woohyun up.

Woohyun cautiously opened one eye, then the other and looked up at Sunggyu. His eyes were sparkly, as if he were about to cry, and quickly cleared his throat.

“O-Oh, that’s good.” He looked away in embarrassment. He kind of just sat there, not knowing how to deal with how mortifying what had just happened was.

“Are you ok?” Sunggyu’s voice was rather gentle and when Woohyun looked at him, he was smiling.

It made Woohyun’s cheeks flush even more with embarrassment. He figured Sunggyu thought of him as a joke now after witnessing such a sight.

“I-I just…” Woohyun bit his lip and looked down at the wooden floorboard until he heard a creaking noise. Sunggyu had knelt down beside him.

“There.” Sunggyu dusted Woohyun’s shoulder, even though the bug was already gone. “All gone.”

If Woohyun wasn’t embarrassed enough before, he definitely was at that moment. He legitimately felt like he was being treated like a little kid or something and for some reason, he didn’t even feel like he hated it.

“Ah…” Woohyun whimpered. “This is so...”

Sunggyu tried to look at Woohyun’s face, but Woohyun kept lowering his head, his embarrassment weighing on his shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” Sunggyu reached out, gently placing his hand under Woohyun’s chin, raising the prince’s head. “You’re cute, ok?”

Woohyun couldn’t believe it. Some guy he didn’t know was doing a rather cliché princely gesture to _him_ , an actual prince. And the cherry on top of it all—he kind of liked it.

“What…” Woohyun looked up at him with a dreamy stare. “What’s your name?”

Sunggyu suddenly leaned closer, making Woohyun’s heart throb. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Woohyun wanted to melt into the dirt and then maybe just flail around.

He felt Sunggyu’s finger tip on his lower lip yet he couldn’t stop looking into Sunggyu’s eyes—the amused, almost teasingly seductive expression his eyes held.

“Please…” Woohyun felt his breath getting shallow, as Sunggyu’s face seemed to be moving closer to his. He couldn’t help but shudder when he felt Sunggyu’s hand gingerly on his thigh, fingers tentatively dancing along the white creases of Woohyun’s pants. “Your name…” Woohyun breathed. “Please tell me—.” He lost his ability to speak in a moment, as Sunggyu stole away his lips, in a somewhat brazen manner. Woohyun probably didn’t realize how cute the slight whimper sound he made when he felt Sunggyu’s lips on his was, but Sunggyu noticed—oh did Sunggyu notice. He found himself holding Woohyun’s face and tilting his head, his tongue in Woohyun’s mouth and it was electrifying and enticing all at once. It felt so good and Woohyun’s mouth tasted so sweet and it was the first time Sunggyu had ever felt so warm.

Suddenly the clock tower began to chime, indicating it was midnight.

Sunggyu immediately pulled away, in a slightly dazed manner. Woohyun was in a completely dreamy state and appeared confused as to why Sunggyu had stopped kissing him.

“Wait…” Woohyun absently reached out, clutching to Sunggyu’s sleeve.

“Crap I need to go now…” Sunggyu mentally calculated how long it would take for him to get home on his bike compared to how long it would take his cousins and uncle in the carriage. “Uh…” He turned back to Woohyun, then noticed Woohyun’s fingers clinging to the sleeve of his black blazer. “I’m sorry,” He pursed his lips. “I-I have to go—.”

“Wh—What?” Woohyun pouted—legitimately _pouted_. “N-No…please don’t.”

Sunggyu really didn’t want to and the sad puppy dog eyes look Woohyun was giving him wasn’t helping.

He couldn’t help a small grin. “Is that an order from the prince?”

Woohyun smiled a bit at that as well. “Yes, you have to stay, it’s an order!”

Sunggyu chuckled before leaning forward again and kissing Woohyun’s cheek. “Thanks for making this night a little better than most.”

Woohyun watched Sunggyu get up with a frown. “Wait…” He mumbled, as Sunggyu turned around once more to give him a smile and wave before leaving. “At least…” Woohyun watched as Sunggyu disappeared into the night. “…Tell me your name.”

-

Woohyun sat in his bathtub the next morning, lazily working foamy shampoo into his hair. Since he didn’t fall in love with a girl at the ball there was no future princess. Woohyun felt rather guilty because he knew his brother prepared the entire event just for his sake. But of course he had to go and fall in love with some mysterious (and sexy) male stranger instead.

He leaned his head back and looked up towards the high ceiling of his bathroom. He wanted to be disappointed with himself, but instead he felt lighter than he had in months. Everytime his mind drifted off, he couldn’t help but think of the stranger in the garden—the way he talked, and smiled, and his eyes— _his eyes—_ and the kiss. Woohyun touched his lower lip with his fingers, reveling in the sensation he felt that time. It was like his insides turned rainbow colored and transformed into butterflies and bunnies.

He decided, he needed to find the mysterious stranger—even if it was just to see him once more.

-

Sunggyu yawned as he swept the front porch that afternoon. His cousins were inside, in the living room, yelling at either each other or something else, Sunggyu couldn’t tell. But because the window that divided the living room and the porch was open, Sunggyu could hear every word of their annoying chatter.

But then his ears perked up when he heard them mention a card from the prince.

Apparently the prince had sent out a nation-wide notice that he had met a man at the Lavender Ball and needed to find out his identity so he could see him again.

“Why would he need to see some dude?” Jaeho picked his nose with his pinky finger with furrowed eyebrows.

“Maybe this man wronged our prince somehow?” Kyungho gasped.

“And he wants us all to gang up together and beat the shit out of him?” Jaeho suddenly bounced up in excitement, cracking his knuckles. “I’m in.”

“No you fools.” Sunggyu’s uncle hissed as he scanned the card the Prince had sent. “He’s regarding this person with praise it seems. It says he wants the man he met last night to come forward so they could get to know each other more. This is…”

“Wait, so its like,” Kyungho narrowed his eyes. “He befriended this guy? But like…is that really a reason to call on a nation wide search?”

“Well,” Jaeho folded his arms with a toothy grin. “The prince is just that great of a guy. Damn what if he comes here—wait shit what if he wants to be my friend?!” He panicked and rushed to a mirror and pulled up his shirt to inspect his abs. “Am I hot enough to meet the prince?! Dad! Bro!”

“Yah!” Sunggyu’s uncle almost crumpled the notice as a sinister smile formed on his creased face. “You idiots, better win him over when he arrives. If we can get the prince on our side we can move into the castle and leave this shit pile along with that shit,” He gestured out the window to Sunggyu, who had his back turned but could still hear them. “And finally live the good life.”

Kyungho studied his cheekbones in a hand mirror and smirked. “What if the prince falls for me, I mean all the girls do, and like I’m totally not bragging or anything but I’m really _that_ handsome, you know!”

“You can’t, he’s mine!” Jaeho argued, shoving Kyungho slightly. What proceeded was some sort of pathetic slap fight and a series of immature poop related nicknames aimed at each other.

Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “ _As if he’ll ever be either of yours…”_ Sunggyu looked out at the warm blue sky, and remembered the way Prince Woohyun’s eyes scrunched when he smiled and how his laugh was like actual sunshine. “ _He’s way too good for trash like that…”_ Sunggyu hoped Prince Woohyun would skip his uncle’s house. He didn’t want someone as precious as Woohyun to have to be anywhere near slime balls like Jaeho and Kyungho. It made him think about the fact that Woohyun was looking for him. “ _Did he really have to send out a huge notice like that…obviously all sorts of creeps are gonna come…does he want to find me that much.”_ He couldn’t help a slight, almost smug smile to himself. But he quickly shook it off because no—he wasn’t in a place where he could make Woohyun happy. Woohyun was too pure and nice and sweet and he was just…not. He decided he would hide in the shed since he finished most of his chores for the day and picked up his broom and dustpan.

“Yah!” He heard his uncle shout as the front door creaked open. “You better not be here when the prince comes dumbass. Stay in the shed until—.”

“Yeah I was going there now.” Sunggyu interrupted with a bored look.

His uncle hesitated. “W-Well…ok then…good I guess.”

Sunggyu left him standing there stupidly and walked down the steps and across the grassy yard towards the tool shed. The only problem with the tool shed was that there wasn’t much ventilation, but Sunggyu decided he could always sneak away on his bicycle if he spotted the prince’s carriage coming.

Unfortunately, he didn’t foresee falling asleep for hours in the hot shed and waking up hugging a bag of dirt. He squinted around and looked out the one tiny window in the shed to see that the sun had gone down and the sky was a medium toned blue. Sunggyu figured if the prince hadn’t come by now, he wasn’t ever coming and crawled to his feet, pushing open the shed door with an unexpectedly loud creak followed by a whimper.

Sunggyu peered through the door and the first thing he spotted was a royal horse carriage on the pathway up ahead. He muttered a swear word and attempted to shut the shed door, but there was a black boot in the way. The black boot belonged to the person who Sunggyu had accidentally hit in the face with the door. He swore a bit more when he spotted his uncle glaring at him while an impeccably dressed old man that was next to him was now running towards Sunggyu.

And only then did Sunggyu realize the person he knocked with the door was in fact, Prince Woohyun.

“Crap…” He knelt down beside Woohyun, whilst the prince had his hands covering his face, laying in the grass. Sunggyu held onto Woohyun’s elbows and pulled him into a sitting position. “Here, wait let me see.” His voice unintentionally softening as he worriedly tried to see Woohyun’s face.

Woohyun suddenly froze because that voice—he hesitantly lowered his head from his face revealing his red nose and slightly teary eyes. “You…”

“I’m so sorry.” Sunggyu held his cheeks. “Are you ok?” He assumed Woohyun wouldn’t recognize him because he wasn’t wearing a mask. “Uh…your majesty?”

Suddenly a snort like laugh escaped Woohyun’s throat. “Please don’t be so formal to me…” He had this kind of warm, knowing look in his eyes that immediately worried Sunggyu.

Sunggyu quickly and rather awkwardly rubbed his face in an attempt to make his identity less obvious. He was pretty sure he couldn’t be recognized from the Lavender Ball where he had his hair styled up and his father’s expensive black suit. Compared to now, with his faded grey, paint splattered worker’s jumpsuit, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his hair messy and damp from sweat as he ran his hand through it.

“Its you…” Woohyun bit his lip, a shy smile forming. “Right…?”

Sunggyu cleared his throat and decided looking anywhere except at Woohyun was the safest choice.

“I’m sorry you—I mean your majesty…” Sunggyu stuttered about. “I…don’t know what you’re talking about—.”

“I’m _so_ sorry about him!” Sunggyu’s uncle interjected and Sunggyu noticed his cousins following behind, all with fake smiles plastered on their faces. “He’s no one, I’m so sorry if our dear prince was hurt by his reckless, completely inconsiderate actions—.”

Sunggyu blatantly ignored his uncle and turned back to Woohyun. “Yeah, its me.” He blurted out.

It was one thing to not let the prince have to be forced to associate with his uncle and cousins, but Sunggyu had had enough. He didn’t want Woohyun to have to associate with scum because he liked Woohyun and Woohyun was a good person. But what about himself? Sunggyu liked himself and he didn’t think he was that bad of a person so why did he have to put up with this treatment from his uncles and cousins any longer either?

He realized this was it. This was his chance to finally throw dirt in the faces of his uncle and cousins. Sure, he wasn’t rich or successful in a typical sense _yet_ , but he felt stronger in that moment and meeting Woohyun made him feel something else—warmth, optimism. Not all people were trash, and it was his job to associate himself with the gems and discard of the trash.

“I’m the one from last night at the Ball.” Sunggyu told Woohyun, earning flabbergasted expressions from his cousins and uncle as well as the other man there, who was Woohyun’s personal and most trusted advisor.

Woohyun’s eyes lit up. “I…I knew it—!”

“Wait,” Woohyun’s advisor, a grey bearded man held up a hand. “How can we know you’re telling the truth. Do you know how many men today have told us the same thing—.”

Sunggyu already had adrenaline pumping through his veins from standing up to his uncle and spilling the beans that he was the mystery guy the prince was looking for, so at that point, it was like nothing could stop him anymore. So he turned to Woohyun, held the prince’s face in his hands and kissed him, right there in front of his uncle and cousins and the prince’s advisor, out in the open. And damn did it feel good. And the adorable whimpering sound Woohyun made was like the cherry on top.

“You…” Woohyun breathed, his gaze solely on Sunggyu as if the other man had cast some sort of spell on him. “Are you finally going to tell me your name?”

Sunggyu couldn’t help a smile at that, as he rubbed Woohyun’s cheek softly. “Kim Sunggyu.”

Woohyun practically beamed, as he held onto Sunggyu’s other hand with something of a shy giggle. “Sunggyu-shi.”

-

Since Sunggyu kind of didn’t really have a place to stay after symbolically (and literally) flipping his uncle off, Prince Woohyun let him stay in one of the many rooms in the castle. And this room wasn’t the basement, but an actual nice large bedroom with windows and a comfy bed and a bookshelf and clothes that didn’t look like they belonged to the ghost of a janitor.

It had been almost a week, and Sunggyu had made himself comfy in his new room, whilst managing to snag a decent day job since he wasn’t being forced to do chores all day anymore. He had repeatedly promised Woohyun he would leave when he had saved up enough money to buy his own place, but Woohyun never rushed him, because, well, he was Woohyun.

Sunggyu had a glass of beer and was settling down to read on his recliner chair near the window that evening after dinner when there was a knock on the door.

Of course it was the prince, and of course he was looking rather sulky.

After having a chance to get to know the prince a bit more, Sunggyu realized Woohyun got rather sulky about things, but never in a spoilt child sort of way, but more in a lonely puppy that was in need of affection sort of way.

“Sunggyu-sshi…” Woohyun practically dragged his feet as he moved towards Sunggyu on his recliner. “Its been almost a week, but…” He folded his arms. “You never once asked to visit my quarters…”

Sunggyu put his book down, amusement all over his face. “Oh? I didn’t know I was allowed to?”

“Well….you’re not, but” Woohyun swayed back and forth, a pout still present. “You could’ve still tried.”

“Yah,” Sunggyu gestured Woohyun closer by spreading out his arms and hugging Woohyun’s waist. “I wanted to so many times, but I don’t want to like, get lynched for attempting to sneak into your bedroom or anything.”

Woohyun made a “hmph” sound and spun around to leave, but Sunggyu’s grasp on his waist was rather steady and he ended up being pulled onto Sunggyu’s lap from behind. Sunggyu rested his chin on Woohyun’s shoulder and chuckled softly.

“Why’re you trying to leave then, hm? Stay a little, Woohyun-ah.”

Woohyun certainly didn’t appreciate how whenever Sunggyu addressed him so casually in such a sexy tone it always made him shudder. “W-Why should I…?” He mumbled, holding onto Sunggyu’s hands that were around his waist. But Sunggyu easily elicited a giggle out of him when he kissed Woohyun’s neck.

A knock on the door hastily startled them both to their feet, as Woohyun’s advisor walked in.

“H-How did you know I’d be here?” Woohyun adjusted his white shirt that had risen up slightly.

The advisor gave him a knowing smile, arms folded behind him. “There’s been an issue on the rise, your majesty.”

“What kind of issue?” Woohyun and Sunggyu exchanged a worried glance.

“Well,” The elderly man cleared his throat. “During our search for Sunggyu-sshi, we had met with many men over that time, and well…”

Woohyun and Sunggyu listened patiently and anxiously.

“Well the thing is, they heard about how you realized Sunggyu-sshi was the one from the Lavender Ball—or well what I mean to say is, they know he…kissed you. And so…there’s something of a protest from those men because they didn’t…receive a kiss from your majesty so they feel as if…well, as if they were unfairly passed on, when they believe they could’ve been the one you were searching for?”

“Wait,” Sunggyu held up a hand. “Are you seriously telling us a bunch of guys are mad because they want to kiss Woohyun and didn’t get to?”

“Well…generally speaking, yes.” The advisor nodded, tiredly. “We tried to reason with them, but well, you know how they are towards you, your majesty…”

Sunggyu glanced from Woohyun to his advisor, with a confused expression. “What’s that supposed to mean—?” But then he thought about how much his cousins seemed to _adore_ Prince Woohyun and how it did seem rather out of place. “Are you saying….this is normal? That men are usually like this towards you?”

“Well,” Woohyun sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “I-I don’t know…I mean I didn’t do anything, and its not like I’m particularly pretty but…for some reason—.”

And that’s when Sunggyu realized, all his problems were in fact not over, and it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing from here on out because he just had to go and fall in love with the most popular (with men) prince in the entire goddamn world.


End file.
